Football Focus to end after 52 years

[MCFC1993]

Feels like a show no longer relevant so makes sense to me.

Never understood why they did the weekend preview as the early Saturday game was starting. Always felt it would be better placed on a Friday.

 

[City Hobgoblin]

More Bargain Hunt repeats it is, then.

 

[M12Blue]

More Bargain Hunt repeats it is, then.

Anything is better than what FF has become,

 

[Vienna_70]

I noticed it said that the BBC has to make difficult decisions about how to spend the licence payers' money, but I bet it will still find enough to fly Slimy Stone around the world to follow the rags' pre-season (or mid-season) tour.

 

[Ribble73]

No loss really -it’s a long time since it offered a reasonable alternative to “Saint and Greavsie”

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

12:30pm kick offs killed it in the end, along with social media being able to show the same style of interviews at any time.

 

[HelloCity]

I never watched it again after a late 2024 episode which completely took the piss out of us for our bad form in the run up to the derby.

 

[TonyColemansbagofapples]

Can’t remember the last time I watched it.

 

[oldius]

I will bemoan its loss, but I, like many, haven't watched it for some time.
Many of the programmes of the past will go because young people are simply not watching in the way we did.

 

[AlexWilliamsGloves]

I always look to put it on on a Saturday morning/lunch time...but then it becomes background noise as i end up doing more interesting things...like tidying up and anything else around the house. It rarely keeps my attention unless theres a City related section

 

[denislawsbackheel]

I thought ended about the time wrestling ended in ITV!

 

[andthesunshineband]

Essential viewing when Sam Leitch hosted it in my childhood. We were starved of tv footage in those days. Can't say I've seen it in over twenty years. Pretty irrelevant now I guess.

 

[edinburgh123]

what a shame for a show going so long. and one that lost 25 percent of its viewers overnight in 2021 when it switched to include women’s football and women presenters. but hey, who could possibly have predicted that…. (and i say that as someone who thinks it’s great that women’s football is doing well - but ultimately it has a different audience).

 

[Norbert D]

I thought ended about the time wrestling ended in ITV!

Bob Wilson and Kendo Nagasaki, like strawberries and cream!

 

[johnevans]

Essential viewing when Sam Leitch hosted it in my childhood. We were starved of tv footage in those days. Can't say I've seen it in over twenty years. Pretty irrelevant now I guess.

More or less word for word what I was going to add to this thread, so thanks, saved me a job!

Yup, Sam Leitch's Saturday pontifications were a must for us then, starved of footy on the telly as we were. Even though he'd always start off (or so it seemed to us Northern plebs!) with news about Arsenal.. you could've had a Saturday fixture list featuring both the Manchester and Liverpool derbies but Old Sam would highlight his favoured team most weeks in, weeks out..!

Life was much simpler then. Eeeee, 'appy days..!

 

[dadnlad]

It was like football a simple concept say what you see and tell truth instead of what mardarses wanted to hear

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

More Bargain Hunt repeats it is, then.

I await the first one that eschews Conran Street Market and turns up at some farmer's market in Islington.

 

[MCFC1993]

I didn't really watch it but I do remember catching this Timothy Dalton tribute to Bell after he passed:


Think that's the segment I can remember most in recent years.

 

[RiversideBlue]

I feel very sad about this but then again I've hardly watched it in 30 years. Hey ho!

 

[hcblue95]

what a shame for a show going so long. and one that lost 25 percent of its viewers overnight in 2021 when it switched to include women’s football and women presenters. but hey, who could possibly have predicted that…. (and i say that as someone who thinks it’s great that women’s football is doing well - but ultimately it has a different audience).

No more women!